For the first time in my entire life, I have finally flew out of Asia, went for an 18 hours flight, to the most original and poorest continent on this earth, Africa.
It is the second largest continent by area and also by population, and it is the only continent that does not have 1 single developed country and majority of its people are struggling hard for survival. When people heard about it, their first impression are normally a few words: HIV, malaria, poverty, hunger, war and millions of uncivilized Negros. It really requires great courage and adventurous spirit to step on this land. (Let's leave Mauritius and Seychelles alone, as these are very matured tourist hotspot.) Other than that, we may only be able to think of vast tropical grassland, prides of lions,elephants antelopes and buffaloes. Hippos are bathing in the muddy water lazily while crocodiles are patiently waiting for gnu cub to cross the river alone.
Hearty Xmas lunch
Well, let's come back to reality. I'm here in Uganda for 4 days, have been travelling around but not to the national parks yet. From my experience, I can only tell that this land is blessed, it has great cooling weather, totally unlike all of us had expected. You seriously can say that it's autumn coz you don't really need an electric fan here in this tropical capital city.The people here are lazy, just as the other equatorial area, due to their abundant reserve of all kinds of resources. They are not keen to work harder to improve their living standard coz they are already sufficiently fed. There aren't any high risings here, not to mention about shopping complexes. The people here couldn't care less about the branded goods. (By the way, the only international brand I see here is Bata）. The road condition was worse than I thought. From the international airport back to city it was about 30km but it takes 1 hour plus. It's a very muddy and dusty single lane "highway" with all kind of dents and holes. I had my 1st car accident here on Christmas day. 2 cows suddenly appeared in the middle of the highway on that dark evening without any street lamps. We couldn't stop completely before knocking into one of them, and instantly our side mirror flew away...
The signature SiChuan MaPo tofu
However, despite the differences in infrastructure compared to Asian countries, Africa does have its merits. This land is original, untouched, undeveloped just like a virgin. People are not willing to overly explore or maybe they know the importance of sustainability.Air is fresh, food is unpolluted and amazingly the water quality is not as bad as Beijing! There are all kinds of restaurants to cater the needs for the expatriates coming from all over the world. Western restaurants I've tried 2, the taste was not bad and at a price more or less the same as KL. Chinese cuisine, you can get a lot and even the local people consider having Chinese food as a culture and luxury enjoyment. Out of the 3 Chinese restaurants I've been to, 1 is extremely good and really way above my expectation! There are about 10k Chinese people residing in this city, from different parts of China, doing different kinds of businesses. They are living a good life here, less burden and stress as to their days in the home country.
Sliced pork in spicy garlic sauce
To be continued...
Hearty Xmas lunch
Well, let's come back to reality. I'm here in Uganda for 4 days, have been travelling around but not to the national parks yet. From my experience, I can only tell that this land is blessed, it has great cooling weather, totally unlike all of us had expected. You seriously can say that it's autumn coz you don't really need an electric fan here in this tropical capital city.The people here are lazy, just as the other equatorial area, due to their abundant reserve of all kinds of resources. They are not keen to work harder to improve their living standard coz they are already sufficiently fed. There aren't any high risings here, not to mention about shopping complexes. The people here couldn't care less about the branded goods. (By the way, the only international brand I see here is Bata）. The road condition was worse than I thought. From the international airport back to city it was about 30km but it takes 1 hour plus. It's a very muddy and dusty single lane "highway" with all kind of dents and holes. I had my 1st car accident here on Christmas day. 2 cows suddenly appeared in the middle of the highway on that dark evening without any street lamps. We couldn't stop completely before knocking into one of them, and instantly our side mirror flew away...
The signature SiChuan MaPo tofu
However, despite the differences in infrastructure compared to Asian countries, Africa does have its merits. This land is original, untouched, undeveloped just like a virgin. People are not willing to overly explore or maybe they know the importance of sustainability.Air is fresh, food is unpolluted and amazingly the water quality is not as bad as Beijing! There are all kinds of restaurants to cater the needs for the expatriates coming from all over the world. Western restaurants I've tried 2, the taste was not bad and at a price more or less the same as KL. Chinese cuisine, you can get a lot and even the local people consider having Chinese food as a culture and luxury enjoyment. Out of the 3 Chinese restaurants I've been to, 1 is extremely good and really way above my expectation! There are about 10k Chinese people residing in this city, from different parts of China, doing different kinds of businesses. They are living a good life here, less burden and stress as to their days in the home country.
Sliced pork in spicy garlic sauce
To be continued...
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